The solution is simple: crack down hard on gang culture with the police actually doing something for once, harsher sentences, more prison places and schemes to support youngsters in deprived areas trying to either avoid crime or get out of it.

As for my personal credentials, I've grown up in the South East of England, which has become increasingly more violent and unsafe in the last three decades. I've also grown up in and near urban areas there and have seen first hand the social conditions that give rise to these problems. (Likewise in Glasgow.) I've also had a fair few run ins with the chavs too, as have many of my friends.

The solution is simple: crack down hard on gang culture with the police actually doing something for once, harsher sentences, more prison places and schemes to support youngsters in deprived areas trying to either avoid crime or get out of it.

As for my personal credentials, I've grown up in the South East of England, which has become increasingly more violent and unsafe in the last three decades. I've also grown up in and near urban areas there and have seen first hand the social conditions that give rise to these problems. (Likewise in Glasgow.) I've also had a fair few run ins with the chavs too, as have many of my friends.

Now it's clear that we're on a beam philosophically. If the trash realizes that the system is more on the citizen's side than it is on theirs, they shut the **** up and look for lower anxiety activites.
Police crackdown, citizen armory, citizen MA training, citizen unified citizen action, harsh sentences, etc. Paramount is citizen psychology; the pandering and appeasing must be irradicated. Anybody who is afraid to stick it to a hood should stand down and get out of the way, NOT dictate policy to everyone else. If they think that trying to work it out with people who haven't the slightest interest in our best interests is going to be productive, they don't have the foggiest idea what it is with which they're dealing and they need to shut up and observe.
I don't know about your area, but here, legally, acceptible force is measured as like force. If the hood simply takes a swing at you it's not OK to shoot his ass, but if he pulls a gun within your reach you can disarm him and do his windpipe. You have to be able to demonstrate lethal fore on his part to take him out, but it can be done. the little shits band together and reinforce each other psychologically, so when one of them gets his fucking head torn off for messing with a seemingly harmless citizen, it gets around quickly. In an area like mine, they're not going to rise up and pepper the neighborhood with gunfire to out-intimidate us because they know that most of us are armed as well.
The really dangerous charaters in my town (an in most of the world) are people you never notice. They have very heady investments in their criminal activities, and don't need the publicity that violence brings. They will kill you in a heartbeat if you interfere, but there's no reason for low scale guys like me (us?) to get involved in such things. If you're a lone ranger, you aren't equipped to do anything about them, so it's simply practical to stay out of the way. If you're a pro, you have to gauge the contracts you are willing to accept based on who your target would be. Unless you have military grade support, you just don't work across from very heavy people. Most of the kind of stuff described in the "Fucking Cowrards!" rant with innocents getting hurt by large groups has nothing to do with heavyweight people; these are retarded school children who paint their names on other people's real estate and do all sorts of things to draw attention to how impressive (NOT) they are.
They fold up instanantly when they come in contact with somebody with balls.
Th issue of target practice works both ways, too; most GANGSTAS couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from inside the barn. They bought or stole a gun to be a big bad finger (not a man, just a finger) but they're too busy wasting their time to put the work in to become accurate shots. Depending upon what a pro does for a living, he may need to be a very good shot, but this is the difference between a pro and a punk. A pro puts in the investment to be able to have the critical skills when they're needed. As far as arming the citizens goes, the issue is whether or not you can hit the main mass of a medium sized torso inside your home; a paulsied parapelegic with a claw han can do this.
Thanks for being on the right side T. Sheep!
--Nohlzaftra

Another thing about mob-mentaity is its unpredictability: sometimes the strangest things happen if you're forced to deal with superior numbers, as I was years ago as a bouncer. Psychology can make an unexpected difference, such as occasions when--faced with a group--you deal quickly and decisively with the alpha-moron (the loudest and brashest), and the rest of the "gang" reconsiders before stepping over their fallen comrade and melting away into the night. I had this happen a couple of times on the job, and colleagues have related to me similar outcomes. Weird.

Another thing about mob-mentaity is its unpredictability: sometimes the strangest things happen if you're forced to deal with superior numbers, as I was years ago as a bouncer. Psychology can make an unexpected difference, such as occasions when--faced with a group--you deal quickly and decisively with the alpha-moron (the loudest and brashest), and the rest of the "gang" reconsiders before stepping over their fallen comrade and melting away into the night. I had this happen a couple of times on the job, and colleagues have related to me similar outcomes. Weird.

I can verify this tactic for you. If you calmly, coldly debilitate the point man, and glare around and yell "NEXT!" they usually don't want anything to do with you. If you can gimp the 2nd (if there is a second) that's the end of it unless you're up against high level stuff, in which case the above only works in Hollywood movies. In real life, you'll get trampled like in a steer stampede. If you're up against pros, you need to use disinfo and slight of hand a lot, or be a dead (and stupid) hero.